The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

Everything, well, almost everything, you know about American history is wrong because most textbooks and popular history books are written by left-wing academic historians who treat their biases as fact. But fear not; Professor Thomas Woods refutes the popular myths in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion

Nothing makes traditional left and right kiss and make up faster than when they're faced with an articulate libertarian. Avert your eyes from this dangerous extremist, citizen! Government is composed of wise public servants who innocently pursue the common good! In Real Dissent, Tom Woods demolishes some of the toughest critics of libertarianism in his trademark way.

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market - Scholar's Edition

Murray N. Rothbard's great treatise, Man, Economy, and State, and its complementary text, Power and Market, are here combined into a single audiobook edition as they were written to be. It provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a reconstruction of many aspects of that theory, a rigorous criticism of alternative schools, and an inspiring look at a science of liberty that concerns nearly everything and should concern everyone.

What Has Government Done to Our Money?: and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar

The Mises Institute is pleased to present this audio edition of Rothbard's most famous monetary essay - the one that has influenced two generations of economists, investors, and business professionals. The Mises Institute has united this book with its natural complement: a detailed reform proposal for a 100 percent gold dollar. "The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar" was written a decade before the last vestiges of the gold standard were abolished.

Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century

Citizens across the country are fed up with the politicians in Washington telling us how to live our lives and then sticking us with the bill. But what can we do? Actually, we can just say no. As New York Times best-selling author Thomas E. Woods, Jr., explains, "nullification" allows states to reject unconstitutional federal laws.

America's Great Depression

The Great Depression was not a crisis for capitalism but merely an example of the downturn part of the business cycle, which was generated by government intervention in the economy. Had this book appeared in the 1940s, it might have spared the world much grief. Even so, its appearance in 1963 meant that free-market advocates had their first full-scale treatment of this crucial subject.

For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

In For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against people. Libertarianism is Rothbard's radical alternative that says state power is unworkable and immoral, and ought to be curbed and finally overthrown.

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

Human Action is the most important book on political economy you will ever own. It was (and remains) the most comprehensive, systematic, forthright, and powerful defense of the economics of liberty ever written. This is the Scholar's Edition: accept no substitute. You will treasure this volume. The Scholar's Edition is the original, unaltered treatise (originally published in 1949) that shaped a generation of Austrians and made possible the intellectual movement that is leading the global charge for free markets.

Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality". Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, Dear Reader is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology.

Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse

In his blockbuster new book Rollback, New York Times best-selling author Thomas E. Woods, Jr., offers the first critical analysis of the 2010 midterm elections and answers the number-one question on conservatives’ minds: How do we roll back the liberal policies and big government programs that Obama/Pelosi/Reid rushed through Congress before the midterms?

The Problem with Socialism

Remember when socialism was a dirty word? Now students at America's elite universities are parroting socialist talking points and "sure thing" Hillary Clinton is struggling to win the Democratic nomination against a 74-year-old avowed socialist who promises to make the nation more like Europe. What's happened? Do Americans need a reminder about the dangers of socialist ideology and practices?

Economics in One Lesson

Called by H.L. Mencken, "one of the few economists in history who could really write," Henry Hazlitt achieved lasting fame for his brilliant but concise work. In it, he explains basic truths about economics and the economic fallacies responsible for unemployment, inflation, high taxes, and recession.

End the Fed

Over 4,000 students gathered at the University of Michigan to hear Republican Party candidate Ron Paul speak. As he began to address the topics of monetary policy and the coming depression, a chant rose from the crowd, "End the Fed! End the Fed!" As dollar bills were lit on fire and thrown into the night skies, it became clear that the real problem, one that nobody in the media was talking about, was the central bank-an unconstitutional entity and a political, economic, and moral disaster.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism

Participating in the economy is a part of everyday life; yet much of what is commonly accepted as fact is wrong. Keynesian schoolteachers and the liberal media have filled the world with politically correct errors that myth-busting professor Robert Murphy sets straight. Murphy explains hot topics like outsourcing (why it's good for Americans) and zoning restrictions (why they're not). Just like the other books in the P.I.G. series, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism pulls no punches.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal

In this timely new P.I . Guide, Murphy reveals the stark truth: free market failure didn't cause the Great Depression and the New Deal didn't cure it. Shattering myths and politically correct lies, he tells why World War II didn't help the economy or get us out of the Great Depression; why it took FDR to make the Depression "Great"; and why Herbert Hoover was more like Obama and less like Bush than the liberal media would have you believe.

The Law

How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? How is it that the law permits the state to lawfully engage in actions which, if undertaken by individuals, would land them in jail? These are among the most intriguing issues in political and economic philosophy. More specifically, the problem of law that itself violates law is an insurmountable conundrum of all statist philosophies. The problem has never been discussed so profoundly and passionately as in this essay by Frederic Bastiat from 1850.

The Rothbard Reader

Few economists manage to produce a body of work that boasts a serious following 20 years after their deaths. Murray N. Rothbard is a rare exception. More than two decades since his passing, his influence lives on, both in the work of a new generation of social scientists, and among a growing number of the general public. One reason for Rothbard's continuing popularity is his ability to reach across disciplines, and to connect them

The Revolution: A Manifesto

In The Revolution, Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has exposed the core truths behind everything threatening America, from the real reasons behind the collapse of the dollar and the looming financial crisis, to terrorism and the loss of our precious civil liberties. In this book, Ron Paul provides answers to questions that few even dare to ask.

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America

David Stockman was the architect of the Reagan Revolution that was meant to restore sound money principles to the U.S. government. It failed, derailed by politics, special interests, welfare, and warfare. Stockman describes how the working of free markets and democracy has long been under threat in America and provides a surprising, nonpartisan catalog of the corrupters and defenders. His analysis shows how both liberal and neoconservative interference in markets has proved damaging and often dangerous.

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism

Hayek gives the main arguments for the free-market case and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds and that its repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist ideas that this century has witnessed were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels as the "fatal conceit" the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

Fascism Versus Capitalism

Lew Rockwell, in this new volume, examines the starkly contrasting systems of capitalism and fascism, noting profascist trends in recent decades as well as the larger historical trends in the United States and internationally. Combining economics, history, and political philosophy, this book doesn't just provide a diagnosis of what ails American and Western society, but also sheds light on how we might repair the damage that has been done.

A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II

In what is sure to become the standard account, Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the colonial period through the mid-20th century to show how government's systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history. Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. You will treasure this volume.

The Mystery of Banking

Talk about great timing. Rothbard's extraordinary book unravels the mystery of banking: What is legitimate enterprise and what is a government-backed shell game that can't last? His explanation is clear enough for anyone to follow and yet precise and rigorous enough to be the best textbook for college classes on the topic. This is because its expository clarity - in its history and theory - is essentially unrivaled. Most notably, he uses the T-account method of explaining the relationship between deposits and loans, showing the inherent instability of fractional reserve banking.

Defending the Undefendable

Professor Block's book is among the most famous of the great defenses of victimless crimes and controversial economic practices, from profiteering and gouging to bribery and blackmail. However, beneath the surface, this book is also an outstanding work of microeconomic theory that explains the workings of economic forces in everyday events and affairs.

Publisher's Summary

The media tells us that "deregulation" and "unfettered free markets" have wrecked our economy and will continue to make things worse without a heavy dose of federal regulation. But the real blame lies elsewhere.

In Meltdown, best-selling author Thomas E. Woods, Jr., unearths the real causes behind the collapse of housing values and the stock market---and it turns out the culprits reside more in Washington than on Wall Street. And the trillions of dollars in federal bailouts? Our politicians' ham-handed attempts to fix the problems they themselves created will only make things much worse.

Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and winner of the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award, busts the media myths and government spin. He explains how government intervention in the economy---from the Democratic hobby horse called Fannie Mae to affirmative action programs like the Community Redevelopment Act---actually caused the housing bubble. Most important, Woods, author of the New York Times best seller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, traces this most recent boom-and-bust---and all such booms and busts of the past century---back to one of the most revered government institutions of all: the Federal Reserve System, which allows busybody bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to pull the strings of our financial sector and manipulate the value of the very money we use.

Meltdown, which features a foreword by Congressman Ron Paul (R - Texas), also provides a timely history lesson to counter the current clamor for a new New Deal. The Great Depression, Woods demonstrates, was only as deep and as long as it was because of the government interventions by Herbert Hoover (no free-market capitalist, despite what your high-school history teacher may have taught you) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (no savior of the American economy, in spite of what the mainstream media says). If you want to understand what caused the fi...

Forget about 'derivatives' and the other esoteric culprits for the economic collapse of 2008-2009. The real reason is much simpler than that and Woods skillfully explains why. Woods is an historian who delivers a compelling narrative that hearing, you just know he would have been one of your favorite teachers if you had been in his class.
I was so impressed by it that I have bought and given out many copies of this book. Read it. Highest reviews.

I liked how this book revealed the feds involvement. I thought it was going to be more inflammatory regarding the party politics; putting responsibility on one and ignoring the others. Thankfully it was not.

Do not buy this to hear how the republicans got us in this mess and the democrats are the ones to save us. It will take a new way of thinking from everyone involved to get out of this and as partisan as politics are today I am not sure the ppl currently serving us are up for the job.

As far as the tone of the narrator goes: I would not have been able to make it through the text version of an economics book but I really liked how the narrator handled himself. After the book I went to thomasewoods.com and listened to the author himself, I believe the sarcasm was intended. Just a normal reading of the book would have not been able to get the same message across.

now i hope we can get "The United States Constitution" in an audio book

Having zero background in economics, I found that the author explained very well how we got into this mess. The description of the Austrian Business Cycle theory was concise and easy to understand. Woods gives a road map for how to avoid boom-and-bust cycles and a great defense of (truly)free-enterprise. It's a shame the people in power don't understand sound economic principles.

Meltdown is a book that every red blooded American that works hard or not needs to listen to or read this book NOW. It's forwarded by the Congressman from TX, (D) Ron Paul, who endorses the book with vigor. This book goes through step by step why the bailout will only prolong the recession and even worse- depression! But seriously if you want to know what you are not hearing in the mainstream news media, print or even radio read this book which articulates complex subjects into easy to understand English.

This book summarizes the works of Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and F.A. Hayek in one succinct text. I am not an economist, but wanted more information about what the heck was going on at the end of last year. I read "Atlas Shrugged", then "Capitalism: an unknown ideal" by Ayn Rand. That took me to Mises' "Human Action" and then Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom". A must-read book by Henry Hazlitt was thrown in there called "Economics in One Lesson". Woods is brilliant...if you don't have the time or the will to read the above, you NEED to at least read this book. Thank God for the Austrian School of Economics!

The author demolishes the standard Keynesian and monetarist models and delivers a straightforward and insightful Austrian approach to today's economic times.

His indictment of the Fed alone is worth the price of the book. The title for this chapter is telling: "The Elephant in the Living Room."

Even more importantly, chapter 4 "How Government Causes the Boom-Bust Cycle," is the best layman's explanation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory I have found. Presented clearly and cogently, even Paul Krugman could understand it were he so inclined.

Solid theory backing solid solutions, an A+ for content.

About production, Alan Sklar's narration is wonderful. Best I've heard, full stop.

He actually seems to have read the book beforehand and gotten a sense of the author's tone and style prior to recording.* Rather than the boring monotone of so many other readers, he invests the text with life and offers a vibrant rendition of the text.

Thank you Messrs. Woods and Sklar for offering the top combination of content and production I have yet to come across.

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* Yes, as some other reviewers have mentioned, Woods has a bit of sarcasm in his writing. When one deals with ideas which should have been put out of our misery many years ago but somehow keep showing up like zombies in a drive-in theater, a bit of leeway might be allowed for the positive unbelief that these ideas still hold sway in so many "educated" circles. =/

This is a wake up call Americans! Our gov't is either inept or criminal,.. or both. Tom Woods lays it all out so anyone can understand. I listened to the whole thing without stopping. It will captivate and anger you.

I understand why many feel antagonized by the narration style. I am trying to listen to the book a 2nd time. I might agree with what's being said but the narration style does over-play the points. I believe the polarized reviews ("less than one star" ) are a reflection of being rubbed off the wrong way by it far more than the content.

The content is most definitely "one-sided", the author is explicit about his narrative, he advocates the Austrian school view of macro-economics and I wish I could find an opposing view stated so eloquently and convincingly. I write this as we hear how the stimulus is not quite working yet and ponder through its effects down the road. I've read some of Krugman's NYTimes pieces and they don't come close to being as convincing. I guess I'll keep looking.

This is probably a good primer on Austrian School Economics is you are not familiar with it. It falls into the trap, like most books with political messages, of being a bit sarcastic and dismissive towards the arguments of the other side. I try to read each viewpoint and for the opposing one I would recommend "The Great Crash of 1929" by Galbraith, which also tends toward sarcasm.

I believe the best point of this book is to give us a lot of questions to think about before we spend the equivalent of a warehouse full of 100-dollar bills that we do not have. While it may be too late for this bailout/stimulus we better think long and hard about the questions raised in this book before we do it again. This is a good introduction to the school of economics dismissed as "supply side" by the popular press but it falls short as an in-depth look at the very serious issues we face. If you want to know more a good next step is Sowell's "Applied Economics".

This was my first Audible book I purchased.
Since then I have purchased and listened to 15 books.
This still remains my favourite and I have listened to it 3 times.
Gives you an insight of the Federal Reserve.My first introduction to Austrian Economics.
A must book to read to get an understanding of the world economic crisis.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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